Morrisette plans to try new anti-strip club legislation

Andrea Damewood

Saturday

Jan 31, 2009 at 12:01 AM

SALEM Sick of seeing Oregon cities stuck with no way to keep strip clubs out of their downtowns, state Sen. Bill Morrisette is asking lawmakers to consider allowing cities to decide where sexually oriented businesses can open up shop.

Morrisette, a Democrat from Springfield, said his hometown’s fight to keep strip club Shakers Bar and Grill out of its core inspired him to create the resolution.

Oregon’s Constitution protects sex shops as a form of free speech, meaning they may open in any commercial zone. Morrisette said he wants lawmakers to put before voters a constitutional amendment to give cities more control.

Under his plan, local jurisdictions would not be able to completely ban strip clubs, but rather could create exclusionary commercial zones where they would not be allowed, he said.

Springfield, like many Oregon cities, has long been struggling to reinvent its downtown, Morrisette said. With a bevy of strip clubs around, it would be “very difficult to do the revitalization,” he said.

“They’re like car dealers, they tend to cluster,” Morrisette said. “There’s so many other places that they can go.”

The former Springfield mayor said he has no problem with the activity inside strip clubs. Rather, he said he objects to the prostitutes and other crime that he believes those establishments draw.

“It’s a detriment to Main Street (in Springfield) to have those activities going on,” he said.

Many of the details, such as where and how large of a zone would be created, would be left to local jurisdictions, he said. Local governments would not be able to completely ban adult businesses, however, due to a 1986 ruling by the Supreme Court that found an attempt by Renton, Wash., to rid itself of sex shops unconstitutional.

Springfield Mayor Sid Leiken said he supports Morrisette’s plan.

“I’d be interested as its made to know what’s in the details and what it entails, but from a conceptual standpoint, it’s something that I would be very interested in,” Leiken said. “I also believe that you have many cities around the state that would also have some interest in this as well.”

Morrisette said he introduced a similar bill in 2001, but lawmakers opted not to put it on a statewide ballot, due to objections from some bar owners.

Richard Welch, co-owner of The Brick House, a strip club at Fourth and A streets in downtown Springfield, said he’ll oppose the bill this time around.

The bill is silent on what would happen to an existing adult business if a city creates an exclusionary zone that encompasses it.

The fate of that business might be left up to the local government.

“Personally, I think Bill Morrisette, who used to be my high school teacher, should focus more on the economy and how to fix that than figuring out ways to put people out of work,” said Welch, who has operated The Brick House as a strip club since 2003.

Welch said he knows that some strip clubs do attract an unsavory crowd, and he supports tighter regulations and even increased stings by the police and the Oregon Liquor Control Commission.

But he said he runs a clean operation, permanently bans anyone who solicits sex or drugs on his property and has installed security cameras and bright lighting to prevent crime outside his club. Strip clubs should be judged by their owners, not their business, he said.

“We have had a good relationship with Springfield police and we are concerned and care about our neighborhood,” Welch said. “I’m a good club owner... I shouldn’t be punished because of (Shakers owner) Jack Dugger. It’s just not right.”

A commercial center like downtown is where strip clubs should be, he said, noting that Club 1444 and Phil’s Clubhouse further east on Main Street are in close proximity to houses and several trailer parks.

“They’re in more of a danger zone,” Welch said.

Dugger last year rented space in a Main Street building in the heart of the city’s downtown revitalization zone and said he would open his strip club there.

But the city successfully opposed Dugger’s liquor license application to the state, and a technicality in city zoning rules prohibits Dugger from opening a non-alcohol-serving strip club at the location.

The zoning rules ban non-alcoholic nightclubs within 500 feet of established taverns. Two taverns lie within 500 feet of Dugger’s site.

Along with the zoning law, Morrisette said he will introduce another bill that would require the OLCC to follow cities’ recommendations to approve or not approve a liquor license.

Morrisette said he’s introduced that bill once before as well, “but it didn’t get traction.”

“We’ll see what happens and give it our best shot,” he said.

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